The Couple at Kyrimorut
by Ba'slan Shev'la
Summary: Jason (OC from my other story) and Carris use their new ship to take them somewhere far far away from home. Note, this is a sequel to my story "The Man On Reach" so if you haven't read that, then this will make zero sense... Check my authors page for updates. and as always, please review
1. The Discovery

Chapter 1

**10:00 Venezia Capital Time (ODST Jason Smiths) / Personal Ship, outskirts of Capital**

"Sir," Amber said, waking Jason from his sleep. "I wish to express my discomfort at an anomaly that I have been analyzing since we have returned from the outer Reach system."

"What?" Jason grumbled, sitting up. It was never good when an AI got uncomfortable. "What's the problem?"

"Well sir, I accidentally intercepted a bit of unencrypted message when we transferred. It wasn't directed to us, had no logical point of origin or location of delivery, and made absolutely no sense to me."

"Okay, so what?" Jason asked, getting slightly fed up.

"Well sir, I have discerned a point of origin, and it is quite surprising."

"Where, Amber, just spit it out."

"From another Galaxy sir."

"What?"

"The transmission was sent from a Galaxy completely independent from ours, in a language that we can understand, and referencing Humans and an Empire."

"You've got to be kidding me," Jason said. He looked around the small bedroom, noting that Carris was already up; sitting on her bed and listening to the exchange.

"I know that at least this much is true," Amber said, "I can currently confirm that there is prosperous human life in this other Galaxy."

"Could you take us there?" Jason asked. "I mean, do you know the rough coordinates of the originating point of this transmission?"

"I do."

"Could you take us there?"

"I could."

"Why the sudden reticence?" Jason asked.

"Because the trip would be quite a long ways, with no promise of finding anything other than a single inhabited planet."

"But we could escape from the UNSC there!" Carris said.

"Or this could be just one giant UNSC colony and manufacturing plant. This could literally be the sight of the beginning of a complete hostile takeover of the UEG." Jason said, finally grasping what was making Amber so nervous. "But that's a risk that I'm willing to take. This could be a place for us to run away to Carris, and I want to take that opportunity. Are you with me?"

"I am." Carris said. "How soon can we leave?" She asked, turning to Amber, who had just materialized in the room in her light-based form.

"We could leave immediately. However, unless you're intending to replenish the food stocks before you go, you're going to have to go into Cryo-sleep for the duration of the trip."

"We can get some food first," Jason said. "Then we can use the trip to get some things done. We're going to want to clean all the weapons on board, and probably learn more about our ship."

"Well then, let's go shopping!" Carris said, donning a shirt and pulling on the bodysuit that went on under their armor.

They suited up, putting on their full armors, newly painted in Forest Camo. They each grabbed an Assault Rifle, slinging it on their backs. Then, all suited up, they headed off to the store.


	2. A Long Trip

_Okay, here's chapter two. I apologize for them being so short, but I really just had to kill a week or so of time that they filled with repetitive boring crap and condense it. the next chapter will be much much longer, i promise._

**Chapter 2**

**Deployment + 00:00:00 (ODST Jason Smiths Mission Clock) / Personal Ship, outskirts of Capital of Venezia**

"Well, I think that's everything we're going to need." Jason said. "Assuming that they have food where we're going. We have food for a couple weeks, water for a month or two between us, an empty refuse tank, way more bullets than we could ever hope to need, and the guns to shoot them out of."

"You're course is already programmed in to the computer." Amber said, materializing on the console between Jason and Carris. They were in the cockpit, strapped into the pilot and gunners seats on either side. Amber was on the console between them, materializing as the blue light-based hologram that all AIs appeared as. She was younger, probably in her early twenties and average height. Her hair was long, down to her waist and unbound. She appeared to be wearing cargo pants and a long sleeves shirt under a vest of some type. Jason was fascinated. This was the closest that he had ever been to an AI's visual representation, and it was captivating.

"Then make the jump." Carris said, giving the order. The woods around them vanished, being replaced by complete blackness.

"Can you give us an on-screen countdown until arrival?" Jason asked. "I want to be prepared when it happens."

"Of course," Amber said. "You know, you stopped saying please."

"I'm sorry," Jason said. "I'll try to remember my manners in the future."

"Thank you!" she said, a smile springing up on her holographic face.

"So, amber," Jason said, "I have a question. I've heard stories of AIs going crazy, what's that? Should we be worried about that?"

"No," she said, "Only smart AIs do that, and it's called rampancy. It happens after about seven years or so with them, and it's because they literally think themselves to death."

"But what about you, you seem pretty smart."

"Well, you might call me a prototype. I'm not quite a smart AI, but I'm smarter than the traditional dumb AI. The dumb AIs, which is a really ironic term because of how much more they can do than the average person's mind, never goes rampant. They can last for hundreds of years with no adverse side effects. Theoretically, I shouldn't either, but if I do, then it will be a couple hundred years from now."

"Okay, that kinda makes sense." Jason said. He noticed that the countdown timer was already up on the screen, up in the corner. They had a little over a week before they got there.

"So what do you want to do?" Jason asked Carris.

"I don't know, we could get the weapon cleaning out of the way. We should probably start with the Assault Rifles and make our way over to the Spartan Lasers. They'll probably take the longest."

"Yep," Jason said. They made their way back to the cargo hold, opened up the weapons racks, and got to work.

They were able to finish one of the two racks that day, and the other one the day after that. Then they reorganized the cargo hold, making it more spacious. After four days on the ship, they had resorted to talking about themselves. After seven days of nothing but talking to each other, they knew everything there was to know.

At the end of the seventh day, they went to bed knowing that the next day would bring one of two things; a new hope for their future, or one of the greatest fights of their life.


	3. The arrival

**Chapter 3**

**Deployment + 195:31:12 (ODST Jason Smiths Mission Clock) / Personal Ship, In Transit to Unknown Galaxy**

"Sir, I regret having to wake you, but there are two hours until our arrival."

Jason sat up, bleary eyed. He looked over at Carris, who was standing to get ready.

"How long have you been awake?" he asked her.

"I just woke up, same time you did." She replied.

"I guess they probably trained you to be a morning person, it's probably a pretty big benefit to be able to wake up at a moment's notice."

"Yeah, they kinda forced us to do that. Shock sticks are a very good incentive to get out of bed."

"Jesus," he said, "That sounds pretty rough."

"Not really, you didn't get zapped as long as you got up."

"Well, you don't have to worry about that now." He said. "We should probably get going; wouldn't want to be unprepared when we get there."

They visited their makeshift armory in the cargo hold, suiting up in their armor.

"Do you think that they'll be hostile?" Carris asked.

"I don't know, but we should be prepared for anything." He replied. "I just hope that if they are hostile, we'll be able to injure them with our guns. As far as we know, they could be way more advanced than we are."

"That's true." Carris said. "Let's hope that they're not hostile."

When they were armored up, they considered the arsenal available to them.

"I'll take a Spartan Laser and two SMGs." Carris said.

"Sounds good, I'll take an assault rifle and a Sniper Rifle." Jason replied. They grabbed their weapons, stocking up on ammo before heading to the cockpit to prepare for landing. They only had a minute left.

When the time came, the countdown flashed zero and they dropped out of slipspace. The AI had obviously had some trouble with calculating the location of the jump. When they came out, they were fifty meters off the ground, and they were facing straight down.

Jason did his best to righten the ship, and avoid a collision with the ground, but was only able to do one. The ship smashed, belly down, into the ground, jarring Jason and causing minor warnings to pop up on screen.

He shook his head to clear it, and then looked around. They were in the middle of a large patch of land with trees all around. When he checked the rear cameras, he saw that they were right next to a large hut shaped house, easily able to house several families in close proximity. There were people approaching.

They were wearing unfamiliar armor, with full face masks complete with a T-shaped visor. Jason saw seven people now, three in full armor, and the other four only wearing a few armored plates. They were all drawing guns.

"This doesn't look very good at all." Carris said.

"No, it doesn't." Jason said. He activated the external speakers, and turned them down. It wouldn't be a good idea to deafen them when they were already hostile.

"Please don't shoot us." Jason said. "We have no idea where we are. We jumped here on a semi-random jump. We don't know who you are, and we don't have any bad intentions. Just please don't shoot us."

"Come out slowly." The man in the forefront of the group said. He was one of the three men wearing a full suit of armor. The plates on his were painted matte gold, and he seemed to be walking with a limp. That could have given them an advantage in a fight, had the other six men there not been large, relatively young, and extremely fit looking.

"Sir, may I suggest that you take me with you?" Amber said.

"What do you mean?" Jason asked. "We don't know that they'll have any way to plug you in, so there would be no point."

"Well, I am programmed with all known languages, and I obviously have the capacity to learn new ones. In addition, while designed to pilot this ship, I am also suited for many broad combat tasks, as well as hacking. I would be a valuable asset."

"Okay, fine, I'll take you with me." Carris said.

"You have the upgraded neural interface required for that?" Jason asked.

"My interface is able to interact with my armor, which has a weave of memory-processing super-conductor. It's usually reserved for battleships. I could handle a full smart AI if we had one."

"Well damn then," Jason said, "Let's take her with us."

They gave amber a moment to sort herself out, and then pulled her chip. Carris inserted it into the slot in the base of her skull, and Jason could see that the feeling was odd.

"This is weird," Carris said. "I'm not sure how I feel about this. Oh well, it'll have to do. Let's go."

Jason and Carris left their weapons on their backs, walking towards the hatch quickly.

"This is going to be extremely hard to explain." Jason said.

"There's no way that they're going to believe us." Carris agreed.

Jason steadied himself against the bulkhead; he didn't feel very well, suddenly overcome with concern. _What if they don't believe us? It looks like they might not be happy that we're here, what if they don't want us to leave?_

He took a deep breath to steady himself, and then hit the hatch release, sending the ramp sliding towards the ground. The three men in armor, the leader in gold, another man in black, and a third in deep red, all stood with weapon drawn and aimed at them.

"What are the odds that our armor is likely to be able to withstand a barrage of fire from all seven unfamiliar weapons down there Amber?" Jason asked over a closed Comms circuit.

"Do you really want to know?" She asked. "Because completing and interpreting math equations is my specialty, and I'm not positive that knowing this number would do any good for your mental wellness."

"Well, that really kind of answers my question for me though, doesn't it?" Jason said. "Diplomacy it is."

Both Jason and Carris kept their hands where the men could see them, and walked slowly to the bottom of the ramp.

"Who are you and how did you find us?" the man in gold asked.

"My name is Jason Smiths, and she's Carris. And how we got here is a long and extremely unlikely story that you most likely won't believe."

"Well, think you can condense it into about sixty seconds?" the man in the gold armor said. "Because that's all the time you have to convince me that you're not threats to me and my boys."

"Okay, we're from another galaxy." Jason started. "Humanity encompasses hundreds of planets, or at least we did until the Covenant showed up. The Covenants is a group of different alien species on some sort of holy mission. They view humans as heretics, and currently want nothing more than our destruction. We've been fighting, and losing, for almost thirty years. Carris and I just discovered a prototype human ship while we were fighting on a planet that the covenant were about to destroy, and we took it, going on the run because she's a genetically engineered super human that they want to deny the background of, and I stole about five trillion credit's worth of technology and money from the planet and walked away from the war with it."

"Time's up," the man in the black armor said. He raised his weapon, pointing it at Jason's head.

"Hold on now." Gold armor said. "This is interesting to me; you get twenty seconds to wrap it up before I personally kill you both."

"The ship jumps nearly instantly to anywhere we want it to with precision accuracy. We intercepted a transmission during a jump from these coordinates. It was outside our galaxy and we had hoped we would be safe here, so we made the jump."

"Okay," Gold said. He holstered his pistol, watching them. "I don't believe you, but it's easy enough to check up on your story. Mereel, check it out." A man in partial armor stepped up from behind them, passing them on his way in the ship. He spent ten minutes in there, and Jason and Carris slowly sat down. "I'm Kal Skirata." The man said. "We run a home for displaced cloned soldiers."

"Why are you telling him all this?" Black armor asked.

"Because if he's telling the truth, then I'm going to take them in and offer them a home here. If they aren't, then we're going to kill them and it doesn't matter what they know."

"I suppose that last part is true, but do you really think that they can be trusted?"

Kal looked at them long and hard, then finally spoke. "Helmets off, both of you."

Jason and Carris were quick to comply, deactivating their shields and pulling off their helmets and tucking them under their arms. Kal walked up to them, placing himself in front of both of them and forcing them to look down at him. He removed his helmet, likely so that he could see them with his own eyes. He was shorter than they were, and older. However, despite this, Jason knew that at least he might not have been able to take him. And when he glanced over at Carris, she looked as unsure as he felt._ I really have to teach her how to mask her emotions from other people._ Jason thought to himself.

Kal Skirata looked at both of them in turn, sizing them up before Mereel came out to deliver his verdict. It took him seconds to analyze Carris, but he paused when he came to Jason.

"Why are you so nervous?" he asked him.

"Because you threatened to shoot me and the woman that I love, and I suspect that our armor wouldn't be able to stand up to your weapons if we attempted to make a run for it. But running would save us anyway, because it's fairly obvious to me that you don't want to be found, and our leaving would compromise your security. You would hunt us down and kill us to protect your own. Knowing all of that, I'm completely relying on the kindness of someone I just met, and hoping that they believe where we came from and decide not to kill us. So yes, I'm pretty nervous."

"Good answer," Kal said. "It shows me that you've really grasped the severity of the situation."

Just then, Mereel stepped out of the ship behind them and spoke up.

"Their story checks out. All of it."

Kal looked at him, his face beaming with pride out of nowhere. "I know it does son, but thanks for confirming it."

"How did you know?" Jason asked.

"Because I asked you a question, and you answered it truthfully."

"How did you know I answered it truthfully?" Jason asked, getting even more frustrated and bewildered.

"Because I'm old and I have experience and I know these kinds of things, that's how." Kal said.

"Okay, okay," Jason said. He looked around at the people who had holstered their weapons and approached the ship. The man in black had only lowered his, not holstered it. Jason couldn't see his face, but he imagined that he looked frustrated.

"Now what?" Jason asked.

"Now, I offer you a place to stay."

"Well thank you," Carris said, "We'll do anything we can to support ourselves here."

"That's very kind of you, we're going to take you up on that offer." Kal said. "Follow me; I want you to meet the rest of my family."

Kal Skirata walked back towards the house, feeling that it was safe to turn his back on the newcomers because he knew that his boys would be watching. Especially Ordo. _That boy is almost more protective of me than I am of him. _Kal thought to himself as he walked.

He could hear them behind him. Especially the girl; her armor made quite a bit of noise when she walked. If he had to guess, he would estimate her armor to weigh at least half a ton. It had to be powered, he could hear the servos turning. _Her armor might be able to stop a few shots from the Verpine._ He thought. _She could be a difficult one to put down if it comes down to that._

He walked a little faster, trying as hard as he could to forget why he had taken them in.

_He's as hard to read as Walon or I, makes him transparent as a rock. He's a soldier, likely a damn fine one, but that's all there is to it. But her; she's a child. She can't control the emotions that she shows on her face, and you can tell that she doesn't even know she's showing them half the time. I know exactly what her backstory is. Genetically engineered supersoldier; that means she was trained from an extremely early age. She's just like my boys. I can't leave her out. And as much as I distrust him, that man is tagging along with her the whole way. _

He sighed dejectedly and walked through the door of the house, calling out as soon as he stepped inside.

"Everybody to the commons room, we have a new addition to the family."

Walon Vau walked up from behind and stood next to him, standing close enough to ensure a discreet conversation. His jet black armor had stood out in the crowd of people that met the newcomers at the ship, but his personality had set him apart much further.

"I know why you did it; I know why you took them in. And I'm glad you did." He said. "That girl is just like any of our boys. There's no way we could have kicked her out or killed her. And there's no way we could have gotten rid of him without her putting up a good bit of… opposition."

"I'm glad you understand." Kal said, relieved that he wasn't the only one to have seen it.

"The only reason that I was so hard on them was because I prefer to play the tough uncle. The uncle that doesn't take any bullshit from anyone." He said. "You get a lot more done that way."

"I agree," Kal said. "Good call."

Nearly everyone was gathered in the living room by then, and there wasn't a single pair of eyes that wasn't fastened on the large, imposing figure of the female in her armor, or the man in his smaller armor.

"Who are they?" Laseema asked.

"That's why I called you all here; to introduce you to the latest members of the clan."

"How long have you known them?" Gilmar asked. "I don't recall you ever having mentioned meeting someone that might join."

"I met them about five minutes ago." Kal said. "But I trust them. That doesn't necessarily mean that you have to, but your trust isn't essential right now; only mine and Walon's."

"If you trust them, then we trust them." Ordo said. "But that doesn't mean that we have to like them."

"No, it doesn't." Kal said, "But it does mean that they've at least earned the right to have you be polite to them and not shun them."

"Yes Kal'buir." Ordo said dejectedly.

"Very good," Kal said, "Now, introduce yourselves."

"My name is Jason," the man said.

"And I'm Carris," the girl said.

"Okay, now that you've introduced yourselves, I'll show you to your quarters. Space is a little bit tight, you don't mind sharing a room do you?" Kal asked.

"Well, we've actually been meaning to get married." Carris said.

"Well, that can be arranged. Once you know more about us, and our culture, I'm sure you'll realize that this is a very serious decision to make, but a very simple process once the both of you are sure." Kal said.

"Well, thank you." Jason said, "For everything."

"Don't mention it." Kal said. "You're a part of the clan now. And that means that we'll protect you until the end, so long as you return the favor for us."


	4. So You Want To Hear A Story

Chapter 4

**17:45 Kyrimorut Time (ODST Jason Smiths) / Living Room, Main Building**

Everyone was clustered into the living room, ready to listen to Jason and Carris tell them about where they had come from.

"Tell us about your galaxy," Kal said, "I'm sure we're all very interested in hearing about the different history behind where you come from."

"Okay," Jason said. "Well, I'll do my best."

"Humanity began to become relevant and important around a thousand years ago, in the fifteen hundreds." Jason said.

"Wait, what year is it there?" Kal asked, "It'll help us get a reference point for the rest of this."

"The current year when we left was twenty five fifty two," Jason said.

"Okay," Kal said. "That helps some."

"Anyway, back in the fifteen hundreds, humanity began to expand, covering many of the Major landmasses on our home planet, Earth. It took several hundred years for humanity to expand, pressing out into the stars and bringing new planets into our fold. Initially, it required terraforming of planets to suit the needs of humans. But there were dozens, no hundreds, of planets that we discovered that were livable to us.

"Initially, we cultivated crops to feed populations elsewhere. But after a while, we had to use some planets for mining purposes. We were in desperate need of resources to fund a rapidly expanding coalition of planets, and we most certainly found them. So some planets were used for growing plants and animals to feed the populations of other planets, some planets were used to mine resources to further expand, some planets were dedicated solely to ship building so that we could expand further faster, and others were used for the sole purpose of vacationing, being turned into giant resorts to keep those hundreds of billions of people entertained.

"Then, around the end of the twenty four hundreds, roughly seventy five standard years ago, the insurrectionists started to crop up. They were groups of people, originally in the outer Colonies, who felt that the Earth government was growing harsh and imperialistic in their laws. They wanted out. They wanted to split away and form their own government. Naturally, this wasn't tolerated by the Unified Earth Government, and the fighting began.

"Initially, in fact, throughout the war, if it could be called that, the insurrectionists did a lot of bombings. Not on military targets necessarily, but anywhere that they felt that they would be able to send a message. Government buildings, bakeries, daycares, it didn't matter. They would bomb anywhere that would strike fear into the eyes of the people. Their goal was to make the citizens of a planet feel that the UEG couldn't protect them anymore. It didn't help that the UEG was often mistaken in who they captured and charged at terrorists. It was hardly unheard of for some poor innocent civilian to be taken into custody and sentenced to life imprisonment for a crime that they didn't commit. I think Carris would be better suited to tell the next segment of this." Jason finished.

"How much do you want me to tell them about the Spartans?" Carris asked him.

"As much as you're comfortable telling." Jason said. "I know that you don't feel like it was wrong of them to do that to you, but others may not quite feel that way. But I think it would be best if you told these people the full story."

"Okay," Carris said.

"The UNSC, or United Nations Space Command, is the primary interplanetary military force. They're the ones that do all the fighting against the insurrectionists. Well, the top brass at another Company, called the Office of Naval Intelligence, or ONI, decided that they weren't doing so well on their own. So they green lighted a project called MJOLNIR. Project MJOLNIR was a suit of armor designed to be worn to enhance and protect its operator. Unfortunately, they made it too good, and it wound up enhancing the operator so much, that the force of the movement killed them.

"When they realized that their project wasn't going to work on just anyone, they started another project, called the Spartans. The Spartans were designed to be enhanced humans, trained to be the best, whose bodies would be so well enhanced that they would be able to use the armor with no ill effects. Unfortunately, to create the ideal supersoldier, you need far more training than normal. And to ensure that by the time you finished training them, they weren't too old to fight, the seventy five kids that ONI selected were between five and seven years old.

"They abducted us from our homes during the night, and I only recently found out that when they abducted us, they replaced us with flash cloned versions of the kids. Now, in our galaxy, flash clones don't live very long, and so as far as I know, all of the parents believed that their kids died suddenly of unknown diseases within two weeks.

"They took us to a training facility, where we were introduced to the man that would shape us into who we are today. Franklin Mendez trained us and raised us, teaching us everything that we would ever need to know. He's the man that taught us to fight, work as a team, and win. We owe everything to him.

"So we were trained intensely, working hard every day to become the best of the best. Then one day, when I was twelve, we all underwent augmentation.

"Augmentation was a series of injections that made our bones stronger than steel, made us stronger, bigger, faster, it improved our reaction times, and allowed us to think faster in the field. It overrode certain parts of our brain, making sure that if we were injured, our animal instincts take over, and we don't feel it until the adrenaline wears off and we calm down. We can fight even if we're mortally wounded. It's both a gift, in that we're able to keep fighting for long enough to complete the mission, and a curse in that often times we don't know to take care of ourselves until it's too late.

"But that's not important. The important part is that of the seventy five kids that underwent augmentation, thirty died in the process. Twelve more were crippled, and were either able to serve ONI in some other way, or were given an honorable medical discharge. Only thirty three candidates made it past Augmentation with no deformities, and we went on to become the Spartans that the public eventually new about.

"Now, at first we were hard at work quelling rebellious factions, and I know that my squad was personally responsible for shutting down uprisings on seven planets. We were the best of the best. Initially, they gave us practice armor. This armor was only a fraction of the power that MJOLNIR was designed to be, but it served its purpose, and got us adjusted to what it would be like to wear the actual suits.

"So we fought rebels for a while, but we only put a dent in their numbers. And then… Jason, I think you're better suited to telling them what happened at harvest." Carris ended.

"Yeah, I've studied the timeline of events pretty extensively." Jason said.

"So there used to be a planet called harvest. Ironically, a large amount of food was produced there, though I don't think that's where it got its name from. Anyway, a ship was spotted hovering several hundred thousand kilometers away, and when we tried to make contact with it, we received nothing back. We sent a ship out to investigate, but never heard from it again. We sent a second ship to investigate, and it disappeared as well. Then we sent three destroyers out to investigate, and one managed to return.

"What they told us was disturbing. They informed us that they had come into contact with a ship composed of an unknown metal, and it had fired what had looked like plasma weaponry at them. Their weapons did nothing to the ship, and they speculated that it had some sort of shielding. It was eventually found to be an alien empire that called itself the Covenant. We attempted to make contact with them on the planet itself, but before talks could be achieved, there was an accidental weapon discharge, and then a firefight broke out. Several were killed on either side, and when the covenant forces retreated to gain additional support, our forces retreated to hole up inside the only defendable base that they could find.

"Fights broke out, and several more were killed. Only a handful of people made it off the planet before the Covenant glassed it, the first in a long line of planets that they leveled. We first came into contact with them twenty nine years ago. Since then, they've conquered over a hundred planets, over seventy of which they've glassed. I don't know why they haven't glassed every planet they conquered, but my guess would be that they only glass strategic targets to them.

"Anyway, according to intel we've gathered, the Covenant are on a 'Holy Mission'. They're desperately trying to appease the Forerunners, who were a race of Aliens that came before them. The Forerunners spanned the entire galaxy, and left artifacts everywhere they went. The Covenant want to retrieve as many of these as they can.

"The Covenant is composed of several different species of alien, ranging from light ground support to giant, four meter tall, artillery bearing hunters. They all use some form of plasma based weaponry, which makes them extremely difficult to fight, since our armor can't withstand more than a few direct hits.

"Anyway, Carris and I met on a planet named Reach. Reach was our last military stronghold, before the Covenant invaded. They spread quickly and, as always, covered most of the planet in a matter of days. Our orbital defense guns were powered by ground-based generators, and that was the first place that they hit. We managed to repel them for quite a while, but our forces there were overrun.

"Carris and I were never part of the task force to defend those generators. We were deployed separately, I with my company of Helljumpers, and her with another Spartan. Unfortunately, right after I dropped, my company was decimated by Covenant tanks. I was the only survivor.

"Carris deployed with another Spartan, but she was injured on the way and had to be taken somewhere for injury treatment. Carris came to the city alone, tasked with the same mission as I was; which was stopping the Covenant from obtaining whatever it was that they were trying to get there. At the same time as her though, another Spartan crash landed in the city. The three of us teamed up, and managed to destroy the Forerunner artifact and the covenant ship that had been dropping troops.

"As far as we know, the other Spartan, James, made it to orbit and safety. But our ship was knocked out of the sky, and we crashed back in the city. We found a secret military base, with the ship inside it. We took the ship, along with several weapons and a little over two trillion credits that will likely be useless in this Galaxy. So while we were some of the richest people in our old galaxy, here we have nothing.

"Then, past that we know very little. We practically came straight here." Jason said, finishing his story out.

"Well, that was very enlightening." Kal said, "And certainly interesting." He looked over at Carris, "You're just like my boys in a way. But what they did to you was even worse. You did know parents at one point, but they took that away from you. I'm all my boys ever had. Please know that you, both of you, will always be welcome here."

"Thank you," Carris said. They looked around the room, taking in the faces once again. Jason could tell just by looking around, that while these men might have been clones of each other, they were all drastically different.

"So," Jason said, addressing Kal. We've told you where we came from, and all about the customs and traditions, as well as the relevant history associated with humans in our galaxy. What about you? How long has humanity been a major power in this galaxy?"

"Well," Kal said, hesitating to say. "It's been a bit longer. The Republic, which, as it happens, was just overthrown, was the leading galactic power for about twenty thousand years."

Jason just stared at him, unable to comprehend what he had just said.

"How is that possible?" he asked. "We've only been a galactic power for a few hundred years."

"Well, it might be easier for you to just accept that the republic has been around longer and instead for me to tell you about our cultural past." Kal said.

"Yes, learning about the Mandalorians is far simpler than the republic." Walon Vau said. He had been silent up to this point, seeming to be enormously distrustful of them. However, upon hearing of the history of the humans in Jason and Carris's galaxy, he seemed to open up more. He held himself less rigidly, seeming to relax into the couch more. "Very little has changed for the Mandalorians over time, even considering that we have been around longer than the republic."

"Well then please, tell us about the Mandalorians!" Carris said. She was leaning forward in her seat, seemingly riveted by the thought of learning about such a different group of people.

"Well see, it goes like this." Kal said. "A lot of this will be extremely hard for you to take in, because up until this point, I haven't told you about the Jedi and the Sith. We should probably start there, assuming that we're going to be learning about the Mandalorian's history; because you cannot possibly hope to understand our history, without knowing about the force."

"This will be difficult to explain." Vau said. "Perhaps Bardan should assist us in the telling of this story."

"Yes, that would be helpful." Kal agreed. "Bard'ika, could you tell us all this part of this story?"

A man spoke up from the back of the room, younger than Kal or Walon. He looked to be in his mid-thirties, and he too wore armor like the rest of them. Jason felt like an outsider, sitting in his foreign armor surrounded by over a dozen men and women in armor that was identical in all but color.

"I believe that I would be the nest suited to tell this part, yes, though it would be interesting to hear you tell it, so as to gain an outsiders perspective. My name is Bardan Justik, but you can just call me Justik."

The way the man spoke made him sound older than his years, and Jason was shocked to hear it.

"So, you want to hear a little story, eh?" he asked, making his way up to the front of the group to sit with Kal and Walon. "Well then are you in for a treat! This story starts way back, long before the Republic was even conceived; and I'm here you to tell you that it's all true. Keep that in mind as I talk, because if you fail to grasp that one basic concept, then none of the rest of this story will have any meaning to you."

Jason and Carris listened, already drawn in to whatever he was going to tell them before he had even started.

"Midi-chlorians," Justik said. "They are essentially microscopic bacteria that must be present to support life. Collectively, they make the force. The force flows through all living things. Now, there are some individuals, such as myself, who are able to control the force, suit it to our own needs. It lets us heal faster, jump higher, do things that others can't. We can sense things, move things with our minds, and even destroy things. And these are only the most basic of our 'powers'" when he said this, he gestured in the air to emphasize that the word didn't quite apply fully to what he was describing.

"Anyway, the people who are able to control these powers can generally be called force-users, however this term doesn't necessarily cover all that it ought to. See, when it was discovered roughly thirty six thousand years ago that the force COULD be manipulated, it didn't take long for people to disagree on how it SHOULD be manipulated.

"And, as there always seems to be, conflict broke out between different factions. Though it was quelled, and they lived harmoniously together for thousands of years under the title of the Jedi Order.

"Around twenty five thousand years ago, the Galactic Republic was started. This was a governing body, centered on a core world named Coruscant, which peacefully ruled over a million worlds until roughly a year ago.

"Now, just after the founding of the Galactic Republic, the Great Schism happened. This was an occurrence that involved the Jedi Order relocating to another planet to avoid the rapidly expanding Galactic Republic. Once there, a faction rose up that wished to break off, starting their own governing system that was open to the use of the Dark Side to get what they wanted. They wound up following through on it, and left. This naturally led to open warfare between the two, the result of which was the extermination of the dark side practitioners.

"After that, the Galactic Republic continued to expand, as did the Jedi Order. Around seven thousand years ago, the Second Great Schism occurred. This was another split between light and dark, and resulted in the Hundred Year Darkness. The hundred year darkness occurred, when the dark side forces created monstrosities to attack the Jedi Order and the Galactic Republic. This war lasted decades before the dark side followers were defeated, and fled. They wound up finding a force-sensitive species called the Sith on a planet named Korriban. The Sith were awestruck by the Dark Sider's control of their powers, and lauded them as gods.

"Several thousand years later, the Third Great Schism occurred, which resulted in the destruction of an entire star system. By this time, the Jedi Order had been integrated into the Galactic Republic, and were serving as its defenders.

"After that, was the Great Hyperspace War. The Sith awakened from Korriban, and upon learning of the continued existence of the forgotten Galactic Republic, they attacked, attempting to gain more territory for themselves. The war was ferocious, not lengthy. Millions died, and many worlds were badly damaged. However, the Sith forces were eventually decimated as the Galactic Republic emerged victorious.

"Unfortunately, based off of what I've learned, a Sith Lord preformed a ritual shortly after this. It involved him consuming the life energies of eight thousand other Sith lords, as well as the inhabitants of the planet as well as all of the remaining force on the planet. Once empowered, he left to go to the uncharted regions, where he found a large Sith force, and took control as the Sith Emperor. He bided his time there for over thirteen hundred years, just building his power and army and awaiting the day that he could strike back at the Galactic Republic.

"Later on, there was the Great Sith War. The Sith attacked the Galactic Republic ruthlessly, along with their allies, the Mandalorians. The Mandalorians initially sought to gain honor by attacking the Sith, as they had a large empire of their own off in the outer rim. However, when the leader of the Sith forced defeated the leader of the Mandalorians, it was decided that that Mandalorians would fight loyally for the Sith. The Mandalorians were undoubtedly, the best, and without them the war would not have progressed as far as it did. Together, their tactics managing to get them all the way to Coruscant, where the final battle of the war was fought. It was there that the armies of the Sith were wiped out and the leadership was killed. The Mandalorians, having no real ties to the Sith, other than the agreement to fight for them, returned to their empire.

"Later on cane the Great Hunt, this was fairly irrelevant save for the novelty of what it was. The Jedi Council decided that the creatures spawned by the Sith in the Great Sith war were too dangerous to be allowed to live, and set out to kill the lot of them. However, once they were unsuccessful, they abandoned the crusade, leaving only three Jedi to complete the task. Shaela Nuur, Duron Qel-Droma, and Guun Han Saresh were sent out to hunt beasts that fed on the blood of force users. These beasts were called Tarentateks. They were greatly effective, as the three of them shared a special force bond. However, when Shaela and Duron fell in love, Guun Han condemned their love and left them on a planet named Korriban, the home world of the species Sith. Shortly thereafter, the two of them were ambushed by Tarentateks and Duron was killed. In her grief, Shaela fell to the dark side, hoping that her newfound power would aid her in her fight to take revenge on the beasts. Unfortunately, the crystal in her lightsaber was one that was only able to use by a follower of the light, and she too, shortly fell. Guun Han also died, unable to fight the Tarentateks that he encountered on a planet named Kashyyyk.

"Then came the Mandalorian wars; an all-out war between the Galactic Republic and the expanding Mandalorian Empire. This was led on the Mandalorian side by Mandalore the Ultimate, the supreme leader of the Mandalorians at the time. Now, it's important to note that the only symbol of power that the leader of the Mandalorians has is his mask, without which, no one will follow him.

"The Mandalorian wars lasted sixteen years, and if you asked anyone in that point in time who they thought was going to win, they would have told you the Mandalorians. The Mandalorians were better prepared, better strategists, and had a better army. They were the clear victors of that war. Initially of course, they fooled the Republic into believing that they were a small force, and led a year long line of skirmishes that has been dubbed the False War. It was designed to stretch the Republics army out, and make them vulnerable to an all-out onslaught. It worked beautifully, and when the Mandalorian army hit the Republic in full force, no one was prepared.

"The tide of the war changed when two Jedi, Revan and Malak, entered the war with a legion of Jedi at their disposal. They fought hard and ruthlessly, but it took time for them to change the outlook on the war. After several months of losing to Revan and Malak's forces, Mandalore the Ultimate challenged Revan to a one on one duel aboard his flagship. After a long fight, Mandalore laid dying at Revan's feet. He pulled off his mask, and informed Revan that he had been manipulated by the Sith, their spell having been broken in his dying moments. After his death, Revan took his mask as a spoil of war, preventing a new Mandalore from being chosen.

"After this, Revan's forces pushed the Mandalorian army towards a planet named Malachor V. once there, they activated a weapon known as a Mass Shadow Driver. This created an enormous gravity well, sucking thousands of ships down to the planet's surface. The Republic suffered innumerable losses, though not nearly as many as the Mandalorians, who transmitted their surrender soon thereafter. The collisions of the vessels fractured the planet's core, destroying the planet forever. The innumerable deaths there caused a substantial wound in the force, so large that the closest Jedi to the planet when it occurred instinctively severed her connection with the force to avoid what would likely have been an excruciating death.

"Now, the loss of their leader didn't do very much to the Mandalorians forces, as the culture of the peoples allowed them to scatter into clans and maintain their status as elite soldiers for hire. They maintained the same ideals as before, with the sole purpose of surviving and maintaining their own families.

"Unfortunately, their actions during the war led Revan and Malak to the Dark side, and they wound up initiating the Jedi Civil War. This lasted two years, but nearly saw the complete downfall of the Republic. Fortunately, the republic set a trap for Revan, intending to kill him. However, instead he was badly wounded and his mind destroyed, and the Jedi Council imbued him with memories that put him to be a devotedly loyal servant to the Council, and allowed him to fight for them against Malak. In the end, Revan killed Malak, and disappeared several years later, never to return.

"Then came the Great Galactic War. The Sith, led by the Sith Emperor who still held his grudge from thirteen hundred years ago, attacked the Republic. By this time, the Mandalorians had once again found Mandalore's mask, and were being led once again. They blockaded the Republic fleet, preventing Coruscant from obtaining food supplies. They nearly decided the war, but a smuggler with a plan took down their blockade along with the republic fleet, and the war ended in a stalemate between the republic and the Sith, who each holed up on a side of the Galaxy.

"It was, of course, the Jedi who were blamed for the Republic's near loss. They were in no way responsible, having fought their hardest, and having suffered the most. The Jedi's numbers had been decimated, and after the war they moved back to their old home planet to restore themselves to their former glory. After they had done this, they moved back to Coruscant.

"Then came the fourth and final great schism, where a small group of Jedi broke off and rallied the remnants of the Sith. What followed was the New Sith Wars. They lasted a thousand years, and naturally millions were left dead in the conflict. It was thought that the Sith had been wiped out to the last man, though this was recently proven to be untrue. The Jedi were forced into a more militaristic role in this time period, which in my opinion was what led to their final downfall last year.

"Recently, someone placed an order for millions of cloned soldiers, the best of the best. The cloners on Kamino used a Mandalorian's genome to complete the order, as he was the best soldier that they could find. They tinkered with his genetic sequence, forcing the clones to mature twice as fast as they ought to, be stronger, faster, and work better in teams. The Republic found itself needing the soldiers that it didn't know it had had ordered for it right as the order was complete. At the time, no one thought twice about it, as the troops were desperately required, and relieved the Jedi of the strain of fighting a small scale war practically on their own.

"The loyal troops fought hard for the Republic, and won the war. Unfortunately, the man who had placed an order was a senator; this senator was elected Supreme Chancellor, though no one knew that it was him that had ordered the troops. This senator's name was Palpatine. He was a Sith. Once the war was won, the Jedi discovered his treachery, and when they tried to arrest him, he enacted his plan all along, declaring contingency order 66, which stated that the Jedi had attempted a coup, and that they were to be shot on sight. With the Jedi safely out of the way, the Chancellor declared himself emperor, the Republic was dissolved, to be replaced with the Empire; this was last year." Justik finished. "Do you have any questions? Sorry I took over your story telling Kal'buir."

"No, no, you told it far better than I could have. Though I'll have to fill them in on more of our history."

"I have a couple questions." Jason said, speaking up. He looked around at the men in armor. "So, you're all Mandalorian, correct?"

"That's right son," Kal said. "We're all Mandos here."

"So why aren't you happy about the new regime?"

"Well, that's an interesting topic. See, we kinda became friendly with the Republic in the last thousand years or so, in fact, Walon and I were hired to train these commandos that you see around you. And the baby that you see over there was the result of the love of one of my Commando boys and a Jedi. The Jedi was killed by someone during the purge. The purge initiated by our friendly neighborhood chancellor. So no, we're not especially friendly with the Empire."

"Okay," Jason said. "What's a lightsaber? You mentioned it, but never said what it was."

"The lightsaber is the heart of any Jedi's defense." Justik explained. He pulled a cylinder off his hip, flicking a switch. A blade made of what appeared to be pure energy sprung to life. "It can cut through nearly anything."

"But not Mandalorian Iron!" Kal boasted, he tossed a metal object into the blade, and they watched as it was cut cleanly in half, falling to the floor in pieces. Then he backhanded the blade with the plate on his gloves, and Jason watched as the blade was batted aside. "Useful stuff, beskar."

"Indeed it is." Justik said. "Now, I think it's getting a bit late, we should probably save the Mandalorian history and customs for tomorrow, along with how we got to be a little richer than they used to be."

"Yes, that's definitely too long a story for tonight." Kal said, looking at them, "Unless you're really wanting to hear it?"

"If it's not too much trouble," Carris said, "I think that I at least, would love to hear how you all came to be. This is all fascinating."

"Well then, I suppose I should start at Kamino, at the beginning." Kal said….


	5. And Now We're Here

Chapter 5

**21:32 Kyrimorut Time (ODST Jason Smiths) / Living Room, Main Building**

"So," Kal said, getting a bit of a faraway look in his eyes, "This, everything around you, came to be because of who I am as a Mandalorian warrior."

Jason and Carris sat there on the floor of the living room, watching Kal. Jason glanced around before he began, noticing that despite the time, everyone was still gathered in the living room. The clones were smiling, and he knew that they had to have heard all about this by now. In fact, everyone here most likely knew about this. _Must be a damn good story then, _Jason thought to himself.

"So the first thing that you must understand about Mandalorians is that they're not a race, they're not a people defined and governed by a set of laws, it's a set of ideals. And a very simple set of ideas at that. And once you've accepted these, then you're a Mandalorian. No questions, your past is gone, and nothing you've done up to that point matters. Mandalorians don't care about the man you were, only the man you are now._ Cin vhetin._ It means fresh start, or literally, white field.

"So, you've already heard a good bit about our history from Bard'ika. So we can save that for another time. Right now, I'm only going to tell you about us as a whole. So, once you don the helmet, which is made of Mandalorian Iron, or Beskar, your past doesn't matter. You're one of us.

"There are two things that matter to us above all; honor, and family. We achieve honor through battle. Without an honorable fight, we're no more than cowards. And we have a lot of words that translate to mean coward. To a Mandalorian, a coward is the worst thing that you can be. At the same time, you're expected to be a hero; because as a Mando, you're expected to do everything in your power to defend not only yourself, but the person next to you. A Mando that isn't a hero is a coward. It is because of this, that Mandalorians don't have a word that translates to hero.

"The other, even more important thing to Mandos is family. And I don't just mean blood relatives. Look around you, I've adopted half the clones in this room, as well as Bard'ika. And I would trust everyone in this room with my life a thousand times over. That's what family really means. Not some misconstrued concept of bloodline. We have dozens of sayings about this. _Aliit ori'shya tal'din. _Family is more than bloodline. _Gar taldin ni jaonyc; gar sa buir, ori'wadaas'la. _Nobody cares who your father was, only the father you'll be._ Ni kar'tayl gai sa'ad. _I know your name as my child, adoption vows. Once said, that person is legally your child.

"The concept of family is quite a bit different than others are used to. That's why this was all possible. If it weren't for my first family, none of these people would be gathered here today. So now we're brought back to the beginning of all of this. I had a wife and three kids. My wife wasn't Mando, and so it was difficult for her to understand when I went away to war, working as a soldier for hire, along with hundreds of others, including Vau over here. So after a little while, she left me. I suppose I wasn't surprised, it wasn't exactly a sudden thing. She took the kids with her of course, telling them how awful I was for leaving them. None of them had any interest in me, except for my ex-wife, whom I sent all of my extra money to for years.

"Then one day, a man approached me. We had fought side by side for years, worked together occasionally. He wasn't a soldier though, only a good friend. His name was Jango Fett. He told me that he wanted to hire me. Three million dollars for a job. But there were conditions that had to be met. Very strict ones. I would have to disappear for ten years. Absolutely no contact with the outside. And I had to help to train commandos. I had to train them to survive, to be the best soldiers that the galaxy had ever seen. I was more than happy to accept. I could easily retire afterwards, I could have my ankle patched up. I had injured it years before, and never quite had the money to have it replaced.

"I accepted the job, but I wasn't prepared for what I had to do. The commandos I had to train, they were clones. If I could have backed out, I would have. But now, I'm glad that I wasn't able to. These boys needed me. Needed us, the other Mandalorians that Jango hired, Vau included, to teach them who they were. Because it was Jango that they were cloned from. They needed us to teach them what it meant to be a Mando, and to learn how to survive out there.

"It didn't take very long for me to see how bad things were going to be there. My first night there, I was talking to Jango and we were approached by the Kaminoan director of cloning. She was talking to him about a 'defective' batch of clones. They said that they had altered their genetic code to be a little bit too independent. They wanted Jango's approval to put down the defective batch of six. Behind them when they were asking his approval were six boys who couldn't have been more than three or four years old.

"I spoke up before anyone else could, insisting that there was no way that those boys would be put down like some animals, and telling them that I would train them. The boys crowded around behind me while I defended them, and before I knew it, one of them had pulled the holdout blaster that I kept in my boot and pointed it at the Kaminoan leader. I was able to talk him down, and convince him to give me the gun. Once he did, I took the boys back to my room and sat them all down, I gave them a place to sleep for the night, and told them all about the Mandalorians.

"They seemed eager to learn, and they asked so many questions. Their minds absorbed information like a sponge, and I only ever had to tell them anything once and they had it. I knew that it would be impossible for me to refer to them, to any of them, by the numbers that the Kaminoans did. I gave them all names. The one who had pulled my blaster was the squad leader, I named him Ordo. I named all six of them that night, as I named all of the boys that I trained.

"I trained them all well over the course of my ten years at that facility. And once the ten years of training was up, they were all sent out to the war.

"The first engagement that they were a part of was the Battle of Kamino, and it resulted in the deaths of thousands, including over a dozen of the boys that I trained. The following three years were rough on everyone. Several of my squads were ripped apart in combat, one only had two left, and another only had one. As per Grand Army of the Republic protocol, they were paired together along with a man from one of Vau's Commando squads. The four of them became Omega.

"Omega's first deployment together was to a small planet named Qiilura; they had to stop an enemy scientist from developing a virus that would wipe out the entire clone army, and only the clone army. It was designed to be targeted to only wipe out the clones, but to wipe them out with brutal efficiently. Once they got there, they ran into a Jedi Padawan named Etain. She wasn't the best of Jedi, but she learned well from Omega squad, and while she may not have been the best leader all of the time, she did have the most important quality. She cared about the men she led. But as they worked together more, it became apparent that there was something more than comradeship between her and one of the members of Omega squad, Darman.

"This became even more apparent when Etain came to me and told me that she was pregnant with Darman's child. I was the first one that she told, even before him. It became apparent to me then that we needed a way out. Mostly for my boys, but for anyone else that needed it as well. So, with Vau's help, I started to put together a contingency plan; a contingency plan that you're standing in now.

"Together, we build Kyrimorut. This place will be a secret safe haven for any who need it for as long as we can keep it up; which, thanks to Mereel, will be an extremely long time. Mereel, why don't you tell them this part?" Kal finished up.

"I'd be happy to Kal'buir." Mereel said. Jason and Carris looked at him, waiting for the explanation. "What I did was simple. I inserted a virus into Coruscant's banking system which skimmed anywhere from half a credit to a credit off of every account in the system and fed it into a billion accounts on millions of different worlds. We expected to have billions, enough to last a lifetime. There were more accounts than we had anticipated though, and instead of several billion credits, we wound up with over three trillion. We have enough money to run this operation for several lifetimes, and the contacts on this planet to ensure that we stay protected for even longer."

"That's genius." Jason said. "So whatever happened to Darman and Etain? We've met everyone here and I don't remember them."

"Well, when the Chancellor declared that the Jedi had staged a coup, we decided that it was time to move. We contacted the troops that we knew to be loyal to us, those who knew our plan, and ordered them to meet us. Several of them got distracted along the way. Etain was going through a checkpoint on her way to the drop zone; Darman was with Niner on a bridge overlooking the checkpoint so that they could make sure that everything went smoothly. Etain's baby was already safely on board the ship." Kal said.

"She was nearly through when a group of young Jedi was spotted. They pulled out light sabers and tried to strike down one of the clone guards that was in their way. Etain displayed an incredible amount of bravery and foolishness, saving the clone's life by throwing herself in front of the blade. The Jedi scum killed her. In the panic, Niner fell off the bridge and broke his back.

"I was at the gate too, close enough to witness what happened, but not close enough to stop it. I would say that I regret my actions after that, but I really, really don't. I killed several of them using a lightsaber that I had borrowed from Bardan. Then we all left and returned here. Unfortunately, Niner had to be airlifted, and Darman insisted on remaining with them, so the two of them are now under the employ of the Empire, and we're working on extracting them.

"It's not the best situation, but it's what we have." Kal finished.

"Well," Jason said. "I know that we'll both do anything that we can to get them out."


End file.
